


A Matter of Templars and Temper

by TheAnimangaGirl



Series: The Amell Chronicles [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M, Just an idea that became part of my canon, The Amell Chronicles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 18:11:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8855767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAnimangaGirl/pseuds/TheAnimangaGirl
Summary: A heated discussion between the last two Grey Wardens of Ferelden after the events of Redcliffe Castle. Amell sometimes forget that Alistair is a Trained Templar and Alistair sometimes forget his lover is a Mage. Centuries of unequal dynamics sometimes show their own ugly faces.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SarcasmFish (Alcyonidae)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alcyonidae/gifts).



> Dedicated to the lovely Alcyonidae

It almost felt as if she was in the fade, because things went from zero to one hundred to Zero. Alistair had declared his love, gave her a rose in the shores of Lake Calenhad after securing the Village from the Undead. He had been a nervous mess and she found it adorable. One minute they were the last two Fereldan Wardens, then suddenly he was a prince, and now he was declaring his love.

Dead bodies aside, she felt like she was dreaming…then the disaster stuck once more, just as they were preparing to enter Redcliffe castle the Arlessa ran toward them dragged Teagan and had the nerve to look at Alistair with disgust despite the fact that he had just saved the Village from the Undead. Leliana and Morrigan both were unsure on what to do of the Arlessa, Morrigan showed pure disdain, while Leliana appeared more collected as if she was thinking of something more. ‘Luck’ would have it they encountered Jowan of all the people in the Dungeon, filthy, bruised but alive. She let him go, she wouldn’t have his blood in her hands, not after he had managed to escape the Circle. 

Once they arrived to the castle the things went from bad to worse when finding a possessed Connor. Jowan, always with such a good timing (she hadn’t forgave him for his interruption in the broom closet) returned and offered a deal, a deal that most certainly will land him as a Tranquil or as a corpse back in Kinloch, and swallowing the tears she took it.

Someone could enter the Fade and destroy the demon, at the cost of one life. It was that or go to the Mages for help.

Ania considered it for several minutes. A possessed kid could invoke more undead to finish off the Village, Kinloch Hold was days away from Redcliffe, and she wasn’t ready for returning to Kinloch Hold, not after her disgraced banishment.

Arlessa Isolde offered her life to save her son, Amell took the deal without an ounce of regret, she had been responsible by hiding her son’s condition and indirectly the cause of all the destruction of the Village, not to mention a huge chunk of Alistair’s miserable childhood.

Connor was saved but Arl Eamon was still comatose, she would need to find the mythical Urn of Sacred Ashes…They were already using four hundred years old treaties, one more miracle shouldn’t be that difficult.

They were finally back at camp, despite being offered stay in Redcliffe they needed to get going, and going only lasted a couple of hours before an Antivan Crow decided to ambush them. So now with one more member to her band they could finally have a night’s rest…or so she thought.

“Now that we’re back at the camp, I want to talk about what happened. At Redcliffe”

“What’s on your mind?” she responded tiredly, she didn’t want to have this specific conversation now, he had been awfully quiet, and she could feel his anger after she decided to recruit Zevran.

“You let Lady Isolde sacrifice herself? With Blood Magic! How could you do that?!”

“You think I should have killed the little boy , instead? It was her choice Alistair!” she was yelling, she didn’t yell, in the Circle you didn’t yell, or else Templars will reprimand you. And in that exact moment a streak of fear covered her features. Alistair was a Templar, even if he was a Grey Warden he had all the training of a Templar.

“She was grasping at straws! Of course she would sacrifice herself! She was feeling guilt! This is the Arl’s wife we are talking about here, what do you think he’ll say when we revive him?”

Ania then remembered she was no longer in a Circle, she was a Grey Warden now, by all the extent of the word, she didn’t have to agree with everything Alistair said, especially not after he shoved the responsibility of leading to her, not even if he was her lover.

“The Arl will see the bigger picture” she tried to say biting her tongue, she could have a temper, and if Alistair didn’t tread carefully he was going to push the wrong button.

“I just don’t know how you could do it, how could you make that decision , I owe the Arl more than this!”

That was it. In the past weeks they had traveled together he had talked extensively about him, she didn’t mind and it gave her more context to understand her fellow Warden, but one thing was clear, Arl Eamon never really cared for Alistair.

For how he had described him the Arl was not a weak man, he was not a henpecked husband, if he had wanted he could have controlled his wife in the treatment she was delivering to his charge, but he didn’t and ship him off to the abbey when she pushed.

“You owe the Arl nothing!” she said sharply, looking him in the eye.

Alistair recoiled “Have you forgotten , he took me in when….”

“And then he let his wife mistreat you for years before shiping you to an abbey! For him you were a pawn just like I was a pawn in the Circle!”

“Shut up, you don’t know what you are talking about!”

“Oh I know perfectly well what I am talking about!” she was getting angry, and raw magical energy began leaking from her body, from the corner of her eye she could see Morrigan approaching quietly. Leliana too was glancing on her directions. Zevran was watching neutrally. Sten stiffed and Rosarot also approached quietly.

“No you don’t, you know nothing about me, mage!” he yelled, his face red in anger.

“Mage? Oh so now is how it is?” she should have known, he was pretending to be all nice? Then why did he declared his love if she was just a ‘mage’?

“I mean, no, well yes!” he backpedalled, he looked as if he was struggling to find the correct word to keep the argument.

“So this is it, you make me take all the decisions and now you are questioning me? How dare you!”

“You could make better decisions!” he countered. Better decisions? She choose to save Redcliffe Village in the middle of the fucking Blight, not only that she even raised their morale, resupplied their weapons and more, she bleed with them for Andraste’s sake! She had reached the best possible solution with the Elves as only one person had died to cure the Werewolf curse.

“And you could be stronger but you aren’t, you are weak! That’s why you don’t even want to take the throne, you are afraid!” she knew it was a low blow, but she had to say it, she had planned to discuss it softly and gentle, that went out of the window the moment he decided to blame her for the resolution of Redcliffe.

“Shut up!” he hissed, low and dangerous a glare and hardness in his eyes.

“No, I won’t! You are…” but she didn’t finish her sentence as she felt a strong draining force struck her. She felt as if she was punched in the gut, she collapsed to her knees, gasping for air. She felt sick, she hadn’t felt this particular force in a long time. She had been smited. Alistir had smited her..

She then felt sick for a whole different reason. She felt Alistair trying to get to here but Zevran and Sten firmly blocked Alistair from her, and she couldn’t blame them, their loyalty was to her, not to Alistair, it had been her who had saved them, and Ania felt a little bit touched that even Sten who had wondered if she was a female stopped Alistair from approaching her. Rosarot was growling and Morrigan was by her side with a lyrium potion, glaring at Alistair but remaining quiet. Leliana on the other hand had a gentle but firm hand in Alistair’s shoulder.

“Amell I am….I didn’t mean to…I…”  his face was pale, he was sweating and looking at his hands as if he had blood on them.

She felt like she was going to cry, but she wouldn’t , she will not give him the satisfaction of tears.

Amell stood up took a deep breath before drinking the lyrium potion in one sip. She had on her face the mask that had made her so hated in the Circle, the smug and proud face that could only belong to Irving’s protegee, the face that some mages and Templars argued could only belong to a noble.

“I am going to get some wood and when I come back I want everyone back in their tents, Sten you have the first watch with Alistair, make sure he doesn’t dally from his duty.

The Qunari nodded once.

“Rosarot, with me” said the Mage as he followed her into the woods.

Once she was out of the normal range of the camp she collapsed weeping openly hitting the floor.Rosarot just stood quietly by her side, offering small whimpers. Then an indomitable rage filled her.she felt her hands burning, and a memory struck her. A spell she had read but never had the chance to practice in Kinloch due the space required. One word filled her lips.

“Inferno”

She felt her magic being depleted from the spell, but the raw power flowing from her fingertips was exhilarating. Her target had been a small pond, where she knew nothing could have burn, the spell continue to rage for some moments and her anger finally subdued, but without her rage only despair filled her head.

“He smited me Rosarot”

The Mabari just nuzzled her softly.

“Maybe we are just not meant to be?” she asked , the Mabari gave him a questioning look. “I care about him, but how could I….how can I love him knowing he has such power over me”

“Love is knowing someone can hurt you the worst, but trusting them not to”

She sighed “What are you doing here Leliana?”

“Morrigan told me to come, as she said ‘any words I can say will not provide the comfort she is looking for’ “

“Oh”

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked sitting on the ground beside her.

“I don’t know”

“It’s alright, we don’t need to talk, and we know you are better, we all saw your fire spell”

“Ah, _that_ , I never tried it before”

“Morrigan and Sten were impressed” she mentioned quietly.

“I see”

“Alistair almost fainted”

“Great, now he is going to start pushing for me to become Tranquil” she said bitterly, impressing or frightening Templars always ended up in that fate.

“Do you really think so?” asked Leliana looking at the stars above them.

“I don’t know what to think” she admitted.

Leliana gave her a long foregone look, she suddenly appeared much, much older. “The person who trained me to be a bard has a scar on her back from when I stabbed her”

Amell looked at Leliana with more questions, but remained silent.

“It wasn’t intentional, of course, we were practicing, and my instinct overrode me, I could have killed her. She was hurt of course, and I felt full of guilt, even if instinct had told me to stab her it was still my mistake and I needed to make up to it, I must have apologized a thousand times, but she didn’t wanted to hear it. She stopped training me and took on another apprentice, a boy about my age. She didn’t banished me , but I was relegated to practice my Minstrel skills , no more daggers and bows for me. Then one day when we were traveling in Val Royeaux at night we were ambushed, they disposed of the boy quite quickly and they had us cornered, but despite being prohibited to do so I still had a dagger on me and when the Harlequin launched at us I stabbed him right between the ribs.”

Leliana rolled up her sleeve to show he a white line in her arm.

“He did managed to get me with a poisoned knife, and she knew that I knew that Harlequins always poison their blades. When I opened my eyes she was there beside me, looking me in the eye and told me we were to continue our training after I finished recovered from the poison. I had proved my loyalty to her and earned her forgiveness”

“Are you telling me I should stab Alistair with a poisoned blade?” asked Amell. Leliana gave her a sad smile.

“No, what I meant actions speak louder than words, try to speak to him, listen to what he has to say, but his actions will be the ones that speak the loudest. Words are easy to falsify, actions are harder.”

“I don’t want to talk to him, not yet” replied Amell quietly

“Then don’t. You are the injured party, take your time”

“I am no innocent I did told him things in an unkind tone”

“But you didn’t attack him, he did, you might need to apologize eventually but now he has to do it first”

Amell laid on the ground looking at the two moons that shone brightly in the sky. “Can we stay here for a moment?”

“Take your time” responded Leliana kindly.

Ania knew the next few days were going to be awkward and uncomfortable, but a small part of her already wanted to forgive her fellow Grey Warden and kiss him under the moons. But she needed to know she could trust Alistair, if they were to stop a blight.

Somehow


End file.
